Oil-Electric

Saturday, January 12, 2019

Following graduation from high school in 1962, my next adventure in higher learning took place at Washington State University over in Pullman, Washington.

I was delighted to see the vibrant college town was served by not one but two class 1's.

Propelled by the emerging need for support the explosive agricultural growth of
the Palouse, Northern Pacific (NP) and Oregon-Washington Railway &
Navigation (OWR&N) began aggressive campaigns to reach the Palouse.

OR&N continued east, terminating in Moscow, Idaho. NP
also made its way to Moscow, yet another vibrant college town, then
continued south joining up with the OWR&N connecting
to Clarkson, Washington on the Columbia River.

By one account,
the name "Pullman" is attributed to Bolin Farr, who in 1875,
homesteaded in the area, creating the Three Forks Ranch. As the area
attracted more settlers, Farr set aside a tract of land and platted it
to town lots.

As this account continues, Farr was
friends of George Pullman, industrialist and owner of the Pullman Railcar
Company. Thus, to honor his friends accomplishments, the town-site was
renamed Pullman, and the name "Three Forks" faded into history.

As railroads became sensitive to "the bottom line" of operating expenses, the introduction of self powered rail cars became an interesting concept. The concept offered basic consists, resulting in lower maintenance, and most notably, reduced train crew manning and wage savings.

Northern Pacific purchased one McKeen Car

Several companies tried their hand at responding to the single self powered rail, including McKeen, Brill, ENC and others — including "home brews" like Canadian National.

Only the Budd Company rose to dominate the market. In 1930, the Budd Company opened the rail-car division. In 1934, Budd produced the first streamlined stainless steel passenger diesel powered rail car, the Pioneer Zephyr, now a National Historic Mechanical Landmark.

In 1949, introduced the Budd RDC,
or “Rail Diesel Car,” a self propelled passenger train that became
widely popular due to its reliability. Between 1949 and 1962, 398 RDC's were built and many remain in revenue service.

Quintessential RDC "Bible."

The RDC was offered in four configurations, allowing roads to purchase units for various service needs:

Featured on the front cover of "The Mainstreeter," Jim Fredrickson captured RDC-2, B-30, escaping "Vandal Country" (University of Idaho) into "Cougar Country," Washington State University!

Creating The Calendar

The 2019 Oil-Electric Calendar was produced and optimized for 300 dpi printing. Printed on ink jet Ultra photo paper yields a photo that represents the zenith of my many years of messing around with computers. (My first computer was a Commodore 64!)

Production began by seeking out a calendar template in a large .tiff format that would allow me to "down size" to the 8½" by 11" medium.

(Edit Note. SilverFast is a bitch to learn. I've been struggling to use it for several years.

But it was only last year when I upgraded my hardware to a Dell Precision T3500 Workstation with fast processor, BIG memory, that I have begun to tame the monster. And to their credit, the engineers at LaserSoft Imaging have winnowed down the massive list of SilverFast crash issues, to where I can capture a descent frame to process.

Hamrick's VueScan is my "fall back" capture software. He's made excellent progress in making VueScan a decent competitor, at a significantly lower price!)

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Whilst rummaging around my photo collection, looking for the perfect "seasonal" shot, I came across this photo, shot from the cab of CNR 4255, stopped at Amsbury Station.

Backstory

Our family moved from Seattle to Prince Rupert in September, 1957. My Dad was Chief Engineer on A.B.C. Towing "Comet" from 1956 to 1959.
It was here in "Rupert," at the age of 14, my rail journey began.

My first "cab ride" occurred when I rode the Comet down to the rail bridge at Pillsbury Point. This was only a mile or so from where we lived.

So I climbed onto the barge and made my way deftly through a dizzying maze of track work onto the beach.

Here I took photos of the Canadian National Railways switch engine marshaling cars onto the barge. A guy learns out a cab window and asked me a question the answer to which became the beginning of an epic adventure over the next three years: "Would you like to ride with us?"

My routine was to ride with Dad on the Comet down to the rail bridge, and ride with the switch crew back to town.

Over time, my knowledge of railroading expanded — exponentially!

My First Road Trip

My first over-the-road trip was with a gregarious engineer, Bill Geddes.

Over the next two years — 1958, 1959 — I made many trips to Terrace with Bill and fireman, Hugh McIntosh.

Conductor Stan Wozney and head end and rear end brakemen rounded out the crew.

The first time I met Mr. Geddes in the cab of GP-9 CNR 4409, he explained to me that once in a while, not often, these locomotives could explode! Followed by a loud pop in the cab, which yielded my startled gasp, and the roar of laughter from the crew.

The pop was created by jamming a wad of flimsy (train order) into the exhaust port on the brake stand. At the appropriate point of his story, he hit the release lever, causing the flimsy to be expelled like a bullet!

Thus my initiation to the crew.

My Last Road Trip

It was a sad day when my Dad announced in late 1959, we would be moving back to Seattle. It quickly sank in that my days of riding freight and passenger trains was coming to a screeching halt.

My last ride was on November 18, 1959, on east bound passenger train 196. Power pack included two GP-9's, 4255 + 4206 + Steam Generator Car. (A handful of Geep's in the 4200 class were retrofitted with controls necessary to operate the Vapor-Clarkson Steam Generator.)

Amsbury was a classic Grand Trunk Pacific Railway Station Plan 100-152 design, sometimes erroneously referred to as "Type E."
Amsbury was one of the last fourteen stations on the Western Extension of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway. Apparently the name "Amsbury" is attributed to Capt S.J.R. Amsbury, a pioneer settler.

GTP constructed more than 200 of these structures between 1910 and
1916. Amsbury was constructed in 1911, at a cost of $2,403. Today, it
would cost more than $61,000 for the structure, not including the cost
of transporting everything from lumber through the office and living
quarters furnishings from Prince Rupert. The station was upgraded with
insulation and a coat of stucco.

Mile Post for Amsbury changed from 34.4 to 9.6 when the division point was moved west 24.8 miles from Pacific to Terrace. Skeena Sub lost four stations, Pacific, Pitman, Usk and Kitselas, to the Bulkley Sub.

The change took place with the issuance of Time Table 1. Mile Posts — and my negative collection—had to be updated.

The June 1920 edition of American Lumberman announced a handful of new sawmills in operation or coming on line. The mill at Amsbury, operated by C. Lindbloom, opened in 1917 to process Sitka Spruce, valued for its light weight and straight grain, ideal for aircraft construction. The mill closed in 1928.

During construction of the Westward Extension, Grand Trunk applied to BC Government for water rights for their steam engines. Amsbury was identified on Water Rights file 0127384, 13 May 1937; name confirmed 4 October 1951. The Grand Trunk Pacific, later CNR, obtained their water from Amsbury Creek.

The water tank had been removed by the time I began my road trips.

With the installation of Centralized Traffic Control (CTC) in the 1970's requiring fewer operators, many were dismantled, or worse, burned to the ground. Amsbury was demolished in 1966.

The plan was to ride in the cab of 196 to Terrace. Hang out around Terrace with my buddy Ron and his friend Ken, and then grab 195 for the evening run back to Prince Rupert.

There was no radio communication, trains ran under strict instructions delivered by train orders, referred to as flimsies due to the thinness of the paper. Operators took their instructions from Division, either by phone or telegraphic code, wresting in thick manifolds of forms separated by carbon paper to type instructions for the train crews.

Digging through my collection of train orders I found both sets of orders for my last train ride.

Later that evening, said my good byes to Ron and Ken at the station, whilst waiting for 195.

Presenting my "pass" to the conductor on 196, who kindly gave me the train order set when we got back to town.

Power pack for 195 was CNR 4223+Steam Generator Car. Here I am riding CNR 4223 earlier in the year, on a special train up to Terrace to see Queen Elizabeth.

Since it was dark with no opportunity for photos, I road in a passenger car on the way home, plus that, I was becoming rather maudlin about this all coming to an end.

Six days later, we were driving on Highway 16, heading back to Seattle.

Indeed, I co-owned Media Resources, Inc. in Vancouver Washington for a number of years.

When I began writing this Blog, the focus was on second-generation diesel power. As a young lad living in Prince Rupert, from 1957 through 1959, I began learning about diesel-electric locomotives. The Twilight of steam.

While my core interest remains unchanged, I have changed. Therefore, from time to time, I present subject material that I find absolutely interesting, hopefully you will too!